{"nrhp_refnum":"00001276","name":"Our Lady of Mount Carmel Grotto","other_names":[],"category":"district","location":{"address":"36 Amity St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Staten Island","county":"Staten Island","state":"NY","lat":40.61222453700003,"lon":-74.07477232599996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2000-11-02","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Art","European","Religion","Social History"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A privately owned district at 36 Amity Street in the Rosebank section of Staten Island, New York, centered on a concrete and stone folk-art religious grotto begun in 1937, together with a c. 1920 meeting hall and landscaped grounds with shrines and memorials.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the grotto is an intact example of Italian American vernacular religious folk art, built by lay immigrant members of a mutual aid society without Church initiation. It is tied to the ethnic, social and religious history of the local Italian American community. The c. 1920 meeting hall is also noted as a rare surviving freestanding hall of an Italian immigrant mutual aid society in New York City.","narrative":"Rising about thirty feet in a residential part of Rosebank on Staten Island, this grotto is a serpentine concrete, stone and brick structure decorated with pebbles, shells, glass marbles and bicycle reflectors. Italian immigrant members of the Society of Our Lady of Mount Carmel began building it in October 1937 on land the society owned, with most of the present appearance dating from 1937-38. The grounds also hold a c. 1920 frame meeting hall, a war memorial, pebble-encrusted shrines, a fountain, a brick walk, and sheds and booths used for the annual July festival. The property matters as an example of religious folk art created by lay immigrants rather than by the Catholic Church, reflecting southern Italian building traditions and the thrift of its makers. The meeting hall is one of the few surviving freestanding halls of an Italian immigrant mutual aid society in New York City. Members still use the site for worship, processions, feasts and social gatherings.","period_of_significance":"1937","architect_builder":"Russo, Vito; and other members of the Society of Our Lady of Mount Carmel","architectural_style":"Other: Italian American grotto","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Still in use as a shrine, social meeting place and festival grounds; work on the grotto and its setting continues.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:51:51.354146-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/00001276.pdf"},"photo":null,"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75321383","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":null},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/new-york/staten-island/our-lady-of-mount-carmel-grotto-00001276/"}